American Ears

Political scientist Denis Denisov on the new U.S. administration’s interests in Ukraine.

Over the past decades, it has become customary to view the situation in Ukraine through the prism of U.S. influence on the many areas of activity there. However, over the last seven years the topic of Ukraine has been one of the most prevalent in Russia. As such, stories related to American influence have ranged from absurd conspiracy theories (U.S. officials control all the Ukrainian legislation and decisions of regional authorities) to naively primitive (Americans provide gratuitous assistance to Ukraine in building democracy and an open society). As often happens, the truth lies somewhere in the middle.

With Joe Biden’s election win and the formation of a new administration, it has turned out that many top U.S officials were already associated with Ukraine, and the recent events have reinvigorated the issue of U.S.-Ukrainian relations. In particular, the imposition of sanctions on the Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky, the provision of $125 million by the Pentagon in the form of assistance to Kyiv and the approving statements of the American embassy regarding the shutdown of three television channels in Ukraine.

There is probably not a single Ukrainian oligarch who would be distinguished by untainted financial records. Nor are there any who could not be “caught” for money laundering or corruption, if needed. Now Kolomoisky, the Ukrainian president’s “godfather,” is at the center of the scandal. He was honored with a whole statement by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who noted that the oligarch continues to undermine democratic processes and institutions in Ukraine on a consistent basis. However, those actions, in fact, have never before prevented Kolomoisky from comfortably operating in Israel, the U.S. or Europe.

It seems most likely that all this is aimed at excluding a big businessman from Ukrainian big politics and has nothing to do with support or dissatisfaction with Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

There were also many discussions regarding the provision of $125 million to Ukraine by the U.S. Department of Defense. On the one hand, of course, a complete reform of Ukraine’s army for $125 million is impossible. However, the picture changes dramatically by taking into account that such assistance to Ukraine is yearly, thus regular and constant. In fact, the Ukrainian army is marching by leaps and bounds toward full compliance with NATO standards. As a result, a new opportunity has arisen for Ukraine to join NATO with lightning speed, if necessary (for U.S. interests and not Ukrainian ones).

It should be noted that American politicians themselves sometimes let slip about the level of U.S. influence in Ukraine. For instance, in April 2014, a month after the coup d’état in Kyiv, then assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs and current U.S. deputy secretary of state, Victoria Nuland, said in an interview with CNN that Washington had allocated $5 billion to support “the aspirations of the Ukrainian people to have a strong, democratic government that represents their interests.”

After that, ministers and other top-level officials with American passports (Natalie Jaresko, Ulana Suprun and others) began to quickly appear in Ukraine. And from the very beginning, they were be aptly asked: For the benefit of which country do they work and what goals do they pursue?

Considering the fact that even during the last U.S. presidential election, the Ukrainian question almost became dominant due to the investigations related to the alleged corruption of the Biden family in Ukraine, it can be assumed that throughout Biden’s presidency he will be followed by this scandal.

Various reports support such an opinion. For example, the RAND Corporation, a reputable global policy think tank close to the U.S. leadership, often perceives Ukraine as one of the key elements in containing and counteracting Russia.

The U.S. officials involved have already announced that they are stepping up the foreign policies related to “soft power” and the protection of “human rights” around the world. This means that one can naturally expect Ukraine to assume a very important role in these plans, in the context of Russian-American relations.

Geopolitical chess has once again demonstrated a bizarre arrangement, as Ukraine, a hitherto fraternal country became one of the main threats to Russia’s national security. Naturally, however, this is not the result of the Ukrainian people’s will, but a narrative imposed from the outside, which the Ukrainian people are forced to tolerate.

Denis Denisov is the Director of the Peacekeeping Initiatives and Conflict Resolution Studies Research Institute. Author’s opinion may not reflect the views of Izvestia’s editorial.